NewHam...The police officer has a gun, a taser and many friends that back him to the hilt, including the soliciter and the Judge. My advice is to pick on a weak person, like an illegal immigrant, for kicks.

In the world you would create traditionalguy, a cop could arrest you at any time, claiming you'd shot him the bird (even though you didn't).

How would you be able to prove that you never shot the cop the bird?

Allowing the police to pull people over for doing things like this eviscerates the principal of "probable cause."

And that's why courts reject it.

We don't want a police state. And the fact that this lawyer keeps getting illegally pulled over for fingering cops proves how easily we could have one if we let the cops get away with their unprofessional behavior.

I hope they have to pay him mucho dinero for their unprofessional and illegal arrest of him for merely exercising his free speech rights.

MM...I knew that. Why else do you think I am a free man? Which reminds me of the famous Stupid and Helpless and Representing Themselves in Court Defense. That is a strategy that make most fool Judges favor them with assistance and favorable rulings. (NUMBER ONE RULE in all trial courts is that "to the potential victim goes the protection").

NewHam...So what's new. If you only knew what the police get away with in jails and in arrests? The answer is the new abundance of digital cameras everywhere...but still never flip their switch to see what power they have!

"I did it because I have the right to do it. We all have that right, and we need to test it. Otherwise we'll lose it", says this "retired 46-year old systems analysist", apparently worried he will lose his finger.

(One of the commenters wrote that this is a good opportunity for another beer summit.)

Fen...Flip off everybody you meet, but if the police officer you meet is as uptight as you are, he can seriously hurt you and also arrest you for resisting arrest. Then it will become a swearing contest with the community on the officer's side, unless you find witnesses or a video. Even then the attorneys fees will not be moderate, because the attorney will also become a persona non grata to the police force when he helps you destroy their fellow officer's career. It is best to think of any on duty police officer as a Killer Whale who only seems tame as long as you are tame. This is free advice, but it has a lot of experience behind it.

I think most police would see most bird-flipping for just what it is: some sort of meaningless statement. But there are idiot bullies who are on police forces. The law should restrict the actions of these unprofessional police.

A Minneapolis cop gave me the finger once. It was late at night on Lake Street, driving West. I was in the right lane, maintaining precisely the speed limit, from Lake Calhoun to the Lake Street Bridge. The cop car was on my left, maintaining the same speed. The officer in the passenger seat had his elbow on the window ledge, and his "bird finger" presumably supporting his forearm on the door's window frame. I think it was intentionally designed to not look intentional.

Whatever. Minneapolis cops are quirky, but they're definitely not among America's worst. That honor might belong to police SWAT teams in Maryland, who execute no-knock warrants on misdemeanor charges and then shoot every dog in sight, an average 4.5 times a day.

Allowing the police to pull people over for doing things like this eviscerates the principal of "probable cause."

Unless you tried argue the act itself is probable cause or "reasonable suspicion," which could provide the basis for a stop and an arrest for a more serious offense.

The argument would cut both ways. Signaling defiance to the police may indicate something illegal may be afoot, or signaling defiance to the police would be the last thing you'd do if you were up to something else illegal.

I was arrested for flipping off the Naperville, IL police 22 years ago. It took almost 2 years to have the case dismissed, but worth every dollar when the judge lambasted the officers. I did want pursue civil action but it was too expensive and not many lawyers were interested. Public officials should take the Clinton attitude. He told President Bush on Inauguration day while driving to the ceremony, "people are always waving and sometimes they use all 5 fingers."

"In November, a Pittsburgh man was awarded $50,000 after he was wrongly cited for disorderly conduct after flipping off an officer."

All in all, $50,000 is a small price to pay for this priceless teaching lesson to police departments all over the United States. This time Pittsburgh paid the tab, and next time, for another teaching lesson, maybe it will be Denver or some small borough in Maine. Just handing out a copy of this required reading should be enough to save other police departments time and money.

One last reality check: Police will put up with asinine community members that seem otherwise to be decent and politically connected righteous folks. That is their quick method of separating the sheep from the goats. If you do not look like a favored sheep class guy, then all bets for getting fair treatment and polite suffering by police in face of your foolishness are off, and the political theories that you expect to protect your misbehavior will be of no help to you at all.

If a cop can't pull over someone being offensive to them, what can they do? (Same with someone being verbally abusive, etc.)

This is why I tend to be on the side of cops when it comes to this sort of stuff.

I have a bad reaction to a situation where one person has constitutional freedoms (the flipper-offer) and the other person does not have constitutional freedoms (the cop). Police are and *should* be constrained, much like the military is, from some of the freedom of expression that we have as citizens. They should be. But because they *are* constrained not to respond normally, like anyone else... if someone flips me off or flips you off we can respond in kind, or if they are verbally abusive we can respond in kind, or if they get up in our faces we can probably clock them. And the thing that strikes me is that cops can't do those things and they shouldn't.

In exchange, or just to be fair, people should not have some notion that they have a right to insult through gestures or words, a person who is constrained not to respond.

In a word where all associations were voluntary and cops were not constrained to be servants to individuals who were abusive jerks, my opinion would be different.

Synova, do you think you should have "police" powers over people because you don't like something someone said? Police represent the State and we as citizens have the absolute right to show our grievance without harassment from the State. Pulling a motorist over because he gave the police the finger is abuse of power.

I think that people should have to privately contract their own security which then has the right, like any other citizen, to tell them to stuff it, quit, and refuse to work for them if they treat their employees badly.

I am not at all impressed with people who think that in order to express their displeasure with the State, they have a right to abuse their servants who have no reciprocal right to respond.

Synova,The story was about police behavior in response to being flipped off. The man arrested is suing the police for violations of his civil liberties.

I don't buy your premise that police are doing me some type of favor. The job is not compulsory, and by job, they are paid to do it. Just like having to read Miranda rights to suspects, they have to follow the other rules set by the State. That includes not abusing their police incarceration powers simply because they are offended.

They are compelled and constrained to help you, no matter what you do, how rude you are, or how much you hate them. They don't get to, as any free citizen would be allowed to do, make a list of rude flipper-offers and refuse to do them any favors.